If you haven’t seen Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s love letters to the Greatest Generation, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, ignore all other recommended series, stop whatever you are doing, and locate them. Now. They represent 20 of the best hours of television of the 21st century (especially Band of Brothers), and they are entertaining, intense, heartbreaking, and important.

On Friday, HBO confirmed that it would be making a third World Wart II mini-series with Hanks and Spielberg, which will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force — known as the men of the Mighty Eighth. I cannot tell you how excited that makes me.

The only problem, however, many of us had with both Band of Brothers and especially The Pacific was that it was so difficult to tell the actors apart: White, twenty-something men with buzzcuts are hard to tell apart. It’s ironic, now, since so many of the people who were introduced to a wider audience in those mini-series are now recognizably famous. Band of Brothers was kind of like the Dazed and Confused of the television world: A breeding ground for future movie and television stars. Let’s take a look back at 13 actors who gained their first notable, widespread exposure through Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

1. James Badge Dale (The Pacific) — He later showed up as the lead in AMC’s “Rubicon,” in The Grey and Flight, and has been cast in The Lone Ranger and Iron Man 3.

2. Joseph Mazzello (The Pacific) — Now we know him as Billy St. Cyr, the creepy evangelical tent preacher in this season of Justified, and he’s also to star as Mouse in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

5. Jon Bernthal (The Pacific) — Like most on this list, he’d been around some before, but it wasn’t until afterThe Pacific that he picked up a recognizable role as Shane in The Walking Dead and he’s also set to play the lead in Frank Darabount’s new series, L.A. Noir.

6. Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers — We now know him from Homeland, of course, but he was also in the brilliant but short-lived Life.

BoB was also where first saw a young actor by the name of David Schwimmer. Prior to BoB he had been on some show about him and his friends , but it wasn’t until he starred as Capt. Sobel that people really began to show interest. Since then his career has taken off like a rocket.

Simon Pegg, Neal McDonough and Stephen Graham have also all become much bigger since they appeared in Band of Brothers. Also Isabel Lucas showed up in The Pacific (and in several of my wet dreams, I might add).

Hey now, The Black Donnellys was great, it’s biggest problem was it had to deal with the network censors. Put that on FX and we’d probably be talking right now about how sad we are that it’s about to end a very successful five year run.

True. The mere fact that we got to see a body being crammed into an oil barrel with the use of a sledgehammer on network TV was a feat in and of itself. That was a good show. Also, Olivia Wilde was on that show.

Damn, I’ve watched Band of Brothers a number of times and I never realized all these big names were a part of it. Good stuff. Don’t forget Jimmy Fallon’s random appearance right before the Battle of the Bulge.

I always HATED that cameo. Took me right out of the best miniseries of all time. Granted this was before his late night show when all I knew about Fallon was that he was the dude who couldn’t keep a straight face during any of this scenes on SNL

I fell behind on Justified by two seasons (I know, I know) and have rewatched the whole thing in the last two weeks. Didn’t realize how much Band of Brothers crossover there was, was wondering where the hell I recognized the district attorney from yesterday. Kirk Acevedo you handsome little devil.

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HBO confirmed that it would be making a third World Wart II mini-series with Hanks and Spielberg, which will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force — known as the men of the Mighty Eighth. I cannot tell you how excited that makes me.”

Oh. My. God.

This news is to me like a free bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label is to a raging alcoholic.

Band of Brothers was based off the book of the same name by Steven Ambrose. Ambrose also wrote The Wild Blue, which covers B-52 bombers during WWII. I wonder (and hope) if Ambrose or his book will also be a part of this latest project.

JTRO, you clearly know more about the subject than I (and Preston’s comment only proves that). What I was getting at with my original comment is that Band of Brothers was superior to The Pacific, and if Ambrose relationship to BoB is even a sliver of a reason as to why it was superior, I’ll take it.

I rewatched BoB and The Pacific about a year ago and was surprised at how many faces I recognized. But no mention of Anna Torv on The Pacific? Totally missed some google hits there guys. And also, Damien Lewis is incredible in BoB, not to mention the character, Captain Winters was a pretty amazing man himself. Check out his wiki sometime.

Masters of the Air is one hell of a book. Required reading if you’re interested in WWII. I think they’re going to have to use some memoirs to create a cast of characters, though, because Miller’s book doesn’t follow one group of men.

I think this series might end up surprising people who might think the guys in planes had it easy. There’s stories in that book that are every bit as horrifying as stuff in BoB or The Pacific.

Isnt Gutterson on Justified, that scheming kid from EuroTrip? The one that ends up actually hooking up with a just barely legal at the time Michelle Trachtenburg? Yea, Gutterson has done OK for himself.

Great timing. I’m literally in the middle of BoB marathon as we speak. Great, great show… and it’s cool as hell to see all these guys showing up seemingly at random. I just saw Simon Pegg a few minutes ago, and I had to do a double take. Awesome.

YES more crucial TV to catch up on… i’ve just started both The Soprano’s and The West Wing, next up is Band of Brothers. Why haven’t i seen any of these yet? When they aired i was convinced all TV was crap and stuck strictly to cinema, not knowing both are one and the same now.